Mourning Broach

During the Victorian age a mourning broach was used to remember the dead. This one was handed down to my mom. Mourning was a big deal back then. There were fashions tailored to mourning. Women would mourn for three years. They would wear full black and not come out of their house for one year, add in some color for the second, then the third they could be considered half mourning. If you have seen Gone with the Wind you will remember how Scarlett "mourned". Not quite what these people had in mind. I love that movie. one day I watched the whole thing! On one side there is the picture of the one who died and on the other a lock of their hair. As you can see in the picture, the middle part reverses and turns around. On the back of this piece you can see the "hair art". There is the first visible lock of hair, but if you look closer you can see that the backing inside is made of fabric completely made of the hair. I asked my mom why the hair looked like two different colors and she said that it is possible that the lock of hair was taken when he was a child. My camera doesn't do well with up-close detail. You can barely see it in my pictures. It's weird, but cool to see the hair of someone who lived so long ago.